Australian WiMAX operator that had massive problems with WiMAX

Galen

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080324-wimax-body-slam-met-with-pile-driver-from-its-many-backers.html

WiMAX body slam met with pile driver from its many backers

By Eric Bangeman | Published: March 24, 2008 - 09:15PM CT
Over the weekend, a story surfaced about an Australian WiMAX operator that had massive problems with WiMAX. Buzz Broadband ultimately shut down its network after a year of operation, with the company's CEO calling it a "disaster" that "failed miserably" during remarks made at a WiMAX conference in Bangkok last week. The timing of the remarks is inopportune for Sprint, which is currently testing its Xohm WiMAX network in advance of its public launch in the next couple of months, but the technology's backers see Buzz's experience as an anomaly and predict a bright future for WiMAX.


Buzz Broadband began rolling out its WiMAX service last year and quickly began running into trouble with it, according the company's CEO, Garth Freeman. In his remarks to conference attendees, he faulted WiMAX for a number of deficiencies he said his company had experienced. Subscribers reportedly suffered from latencies of 1,000ms and higher, indoor performance was problematic at distances of over 400m, and, without clear line of sight, the signal dropped at distances of over 2km from the base station.
The fact that a single vendor has had problems with WiMAX isn't that surprising to Miguel Myhrer, a senior executive in Accenture's North American wireless network practice. "WiMAX will have spectacular failures going forward, and if it doesn't, I'd be surprised," Myhrer told Ars. But that's par for the course for any new wireless technology, he argues. "CDMA had problems in Korea when it was first deployed, but it's now [an established], problem-free technology."
Nortel, which is one of the major manufacturers of WiMAX chips, is unfazed by Buzz's experience. "Nortel continues to see strong opportunities for WiMAX," a company spokesperson told Ars. "In particular, WiMAX is an ideal technology that addresses the needs of today's underserved communities bringing high-speed wireless Internet to fixed and mobile subscribers, some of whom have never before had any sort of network connection available to them."

In the US, that's where Sprint comes in. Its $5 billion-plus Xohm WiMAX network has already seen a soft launch, with the company and selected partners stress testing it in advance of its public debut later this spring. When asked about Buzz's WiMAX ills, a company spokesperson pointed Ars to comments from an analyst at Yankee Group. "We do not believe Buzz's failure in WiMAX implies the failure of WiMAX itself," Yankee Group VP of Asia-Pacific Research X.J. Wang told WiMAX trends.
Sprint believes that the problems encountered by Buzz Broadband are specific to that company and its choice of vendors. The wireless provider points to the example of WiBro's successful WiMAX deployment in Korea as evidence that WiMAX has a bright future in front of it.
Buzz Broadband's problems are indicative of the challenges that new technologies face as they are rolled out, rather than of a fatal flaw in the WiMAX spec. "[WiMAX] won't work as advertised on day one, but over time it will," Myhrer told Ars. It's important for Sprint to get Xohm's launch right, Myhrer believes, but the ultimate indicator of WiMAX's success will come in the "BRIC countries" (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). "If Sprint deploys WiMAX successfully, but those countries don't, it will ultimately be a niche technology," said Myhrer.
There are two other bits of data to note here. First, Buzz Broadband uses the fixed version of WiMAX, which is heavily reliant on line-of-sight. A Sprint spokesperson highlighted that as an important distinction between Buzz and Xohm, which uses the mobile flavor (Ars attended a demo of mobile WiMAX during a Chicago River cruise last year). Also, Buzz operates in the 3.5GHz spectrum, which doesn't propagate as well indoors. In contrast, Sprint and Clearwire are using 2.5GHz spectrum for their Mobile WiMAX, which will penetrate better indoors. The takeaway? Despite the problems Buzz has had in Australia, WiMAX's future—and present—still look bright.
Further reading

• The story at CommsDay that started the whole discussion
• WiMAX Trends has the Yankee Group's take on the situation
• Found via Slashdot

watty

Storm in a teacup. WiMax is no panacea, Basically just a bit more range and capacity than existing decent fixed Wireless solutions, not much difference to user, but some operator saving. Somebody swallowed all the hyberbole and didn't watch reality.

Unrealistic expectations for the 3.5GHz.

However 2.5GHz is still pretty bad for indoors. You think Chorus / NTL would put those big mesh dishes on chimneys if a rabbits ear aerial equivalent for 2.5GHz worked? (MMDS is 2.5GHz).

Try moving IBB's 3.5GHz Ripwave away from window and see how well it works.

IMO 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz are outdoor FIXED wireless and only just not quite LOS. Serious losses if not LOS. They may not have had tall masts/hills either.

The Mobile WiMax is no better than Fixed WiMax for Non-LOS, it's the low frequency you need like 700Mhz to 1.5GHz... 800/900Mhz is nicest. Cells don't get too big.

crawler

In fairness Watty - UPC distances for MMDS can be over 20 miles and it's (currently) only one way broadcast stuff.

General rule - under 1Ghz = mobile and no outdoor antenna - over 1Ghz < 2Ghz nomadic and best to use outdoor antenna, greater than 2Ghz fixed and use an outdoor antenna. It's physics.....

watty

Some MMDS aerials are 26dB gain, and gain from outdoors chimney LOS vs indoor with no LOS about 20dB!
So 46dB gain.
Gain
40dB 10 miles
34dB 5 miles
28dB 2.5 miles
23 dB 1.5 miles approx

So with indoor aerial and same TX power the 20 miles changes to about 0.2 miles if no LOS! Or about 1 mile if window has LOS of mast!

I think we agreed that 2.5Ghz to 3.5GHz is best as fixed Wireless with outdoor aerial.

crawler

Yep - completely agree....I would say anything about 2Ghz is fixed.

watty

Some more feedback from a different Aussie Wimax operator and Airspan:

Actually Buzz was trying to use FIXED Wimax with mobile/nomadic style CPE deployment like Ripwave / Clearwire. We know how well the Ripwave PCMCIA cards on 3.5Ghz worked..

Scroll on down to grey bits of other letters.

http://www.commsday.com/node/229